Family Always and Forever
by Dawnieorion
Summary: Upon Klaus and Elijah's return to New Orleans, Klaus enlists the assistance of Natalya, an old family friend. Who is this beautiful vampire who is completely devoted to Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah? Why does she seemingly hate Marcel? How is it that she will be able to aid Klaus in his takeover of New Orleans with a secret weapon he thought was long gone?
1. Coming Home to New Orleans

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it belongs to Julie Plec and/or CW and Alloy Entertainment.

I sighed as I laid on the new leather sofa in the parlor of my family's newly renovated antique mansion in the French Quarter. I had been patiently waiting for Niklaus and Elijah to make their way to the house. I had arrived only a few days before and prepared it for the family's return. It hadn't taken much. Just the removal of sheets from some furniture while updating other older furniture, getting the air moving in the house, and making sure the estate was stocked with food and blood bags. It was hard to believe that we had fled New Orleans over a century ago. It was a bit of a shock when Nik had called me and told me that he was returning.

"_Nik! It's been a while. How's life treating you since you broke the curse?" I answered my ringing phone with my thick British accent. _

"_My hybrids all managed to break their sire bond so I killed them all, my Petrova doppelganger is no longer human and producing the blood I need to make more hybrids, and Rebekah destroyed what little blood I had stockpiled. Honestly, uncursed life is no different than the cursed life I lived for a thousand years. Never the matter, I actually called you for another reason." _

"_What do you need?" _

"_How familiar are you with the current state of supernatural beings in New Orleans?" _

"_I know that Marcel," I spat his name with distaste, "is currently running things. Somehow he managed to take complete control of the town. I try to pop in at least once a decade to keep an eye on the estate. Why? Are you headed home?" _

"_I am. I was hoping you would consider joining me."_

"_What's bringing you back to New Orleans after all this time?" _

"_I'm taking back the city. Your allegiance and assistance would be greatly appreciated."_

"_Of course. I'm on my way now." _

"_There's something else you should know." _

I was surprised to say the least that Nik had managed to impregnate a girl. I was not surprised that the girl was nothing more than a one night stand. I had never known him in my entire existence to have anything more serious than that. He and I indulged in some mind-blowing back scratching when we were together, but it was nothing more serious than a release.

I was expecting Nik any moment now. He and Elijah had been staying at a hotel in the French Quarter for the last few days while making arrangements for their return to the city; they had left the preparation of the estate to me. It was mine after all. I had not even had the chance to see them yet. Klaus was too busy infiltrating Marcel's inner circle, the irony of that was not lost on me considering over a hundred years ago their roles were reversed. Elijah was making arrangements to make sure that the pregnant wolf girl, Hayley, was taken care of. He had been trying to find someone trustworthy to relocate to New Orleans to care for Hayley and the baby who would not be devoted to Marcel.

So, here I was in my former home, reminiscing about the glory days when Elijah, Kol, Nik, Rebekah, and I lived and ruled the town. It was relatively quiet in the house except for the few staff I had employed upon my arrival when I heard someone trying to enter the house. I got up slowly and made my way to the main entrance. I opened the large door and just leaned against it.

"A thousand years old and you can't manage to open a simple door?" I smirked at him.

"What's wrong with it?" Nik demanded.

"Do I look like a locksmith? I have someone coming tomorrow to look at it." I reached up and hugged him and then Elijah. "It's been a while. I am so glad to see you again." I closed the door and followed them into the parlor. "So, where is Rebekah?"

"Last I heard she was with the quarterback busboy from Mystic Falls. She hates me at the moment. She'll come around. Just wait until she grows bored of the Donovan boy." Nik walked around to the bar and poured himself a tumbler of whiskey.

"When will Hayley be arriving?" I asked as I sat on the opposite side of the sofa from Elijah.

"She should arrive in the next hour. She needed to get a few things from the apartment she had been renting." Elijah informed me.

"Perfect. That gives the two of you time to tell me everything I've missed since I've seen you last." It had been slightly over a year and a half since I had seen Niklaus last and four years since I had seen Elijah.

Half an hour later, I had learned how Nik unleashed his werewolf side, hunted for the vampire cure, and road tripped with Stefan Salvatore to create more hybrids. Elijah had tried to kill Nik, backfired and ended up with a white oak ash dipped dagger in his chest for several months. Half of the original family was now dead.

"So, you killed Mikael. I'm sorry, I know he was your father; but, yay, no more running. Finn and Kol are both dead and along with them every vampire sired by their bloodline. Esther tried killing all of you, multiple times." I gave a small chuckle. "May I ask? Are you still hunting down Katerina Petrova?" Nik gave me a funny look. "I only ask because as one of the ones who have spent over four hundred years searching for her, I'm about done playing hide and seek. In my opinion, she did you a favor."

"I fail to see that. Explain." Nik leaned up from the chair he was sitting in to put his elbows on his knees and fold his hands under his chin.

"If you had sacrificed her in fourteen ninety two as planned, she would have been dead. You would have had no way to create hybrids then and no one still looking to gain favor with you by turning over a doppelganger."

"She has a point, brother." Elijah agreed with me.

Nik's cell phone rang conveniently allowing him to exit the conversation. Elijah looked over to me. "How do you feel about Niklaus becoming a father?"

"I'm happy for him. I only hope that he comes to realize what a gift this is and to appreciate it." I stood up and made my way over to a window that overlooked some gardens on the property.

"That is not what I meant. I would imagine that this would bring up memories and past heartache for you." He left the sofa and came to stand behind me. "You can speak truthfully with me."

"It was a long time ago, Elijah. No sense worrying about it today." I turned around to walk away, but he was merely inches away from me. I bowed my head so that he would not see the tear starting to form in my left eye.

He placed one finger under my chin and raised it so that our eyes met. With his thumb he wiped the tear away. "You have no need to feel ashamed of the tear or to feel as if you need to hide your true feelings regarding the matter. You had children. Children you did not get to raise."

"What do you want me to say? That I'm jealous that Nik gets this chance to raise a child. That would be petty on my part. Besides, the last thing those children needed was my involvement in their lives as soon as I became a vampire. I would hate myself if I had not been strong enough to resist the blood lust and had drained any one of my children." I sidestepped Elijah and started to make my way out of the parlor and then the house. I stopped as I reached the entry. "I suppose I should thank you, Nik, and Bekah for taking me as far away from there as possible when I turned." With that statement, I continued out the door to find some distraction in the streets of New Orleans.

I had been walking through town for about twenty minutes when I was stopped by a man in his mid-twenties with curly brown hair. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"I'm sorry, you stopped me. I should be asking who _you_ are." I raised one eyebrow waiting to see if he would answer the question.

"Let's see if Marcel shows you any mercy after you speak to him that way. All new vampires to the area are required to check in with Marcel. Those are the rules." I rolled my eyes. Nik had warned me of the 'rules.'

"I'd rather not see Marcel at the moment. I'll tell you what. You move along and I'll pretend as if you haven't wasted two minutes of my life on that riffraff." I went to walk past him when he grabbed my arm and shoved me against the wall of the closest building.

"Marcel deserves respect. Show it or I'll rip your heart out." He threatened me.

"Oh, honey, you could try. I'm assuming Marcel turned you himself." I paused. He didn't say anything. "Marcel is not even strong enough to take me down. I have four hundred years on him. I'll make you a deal. I'll come with you now to see Marcel and get this over with, but if you ever so much as even look at me funny again you will be dead before you blink. Now get your hands off me before I rip them off." I shoved him off of me and gestured for him to lead the way.

He led me to a bar that was abnormally crowded for early morning. Upon entering, I realized that most of the occupants were vampires. The annoying vampire told me to wait for the bar while he let Marcel know that I was waiting to meet him. He wandered off to a corner of the bar where I could see Marcel sitting at a table. I turned so that he wouldn't be able to see my face and recognize me.

"There's a new vampire in town. I just ran into her on the street. She tried refusing to meet with you then threatened to kill me."

"Where is she?" Marcel asked as he stood and started scanning the room.

"She's beside the bar. About five foot seven, dark brown hair, green eyes, very beautiful." He pointed me out to Marcel.

He started to make his way over to me. I reached over and took a shot of Tequila from the man sitting next to me and downed it.

"Hello there. Greg tells me that you resisted coming to meet me. My town, my rules. You don't like it; you can either pay the price or leave."

I set the shot glass down on the bar with a loud clank and turned around. "Is that so?"

He looked taken back for a moment before recovering. "Natalya Mikaelson. It's been a while."

Hopefully, this reads pretty well. Natalya Mikaelson actually started out as a character in another _Vampire Diaries_ story I was writing but I think it will work much better this way. Can't wait to get into other chapters. Next chapter is going to divulge some of Natalya and Marcel's history and part of why she hates him as much as she does. Please review. The more reviews I see, the more likely I am to continue. Otherwise, I assume no one is actually reading it. Will try to have chapter two posted by tomorrow evening if reviews show any interest in continuing.


	2. Meeting Marcel

**Most of the chapter is a flashback to the day Natalya met Marcel, but there is also a flashback within the flashback to the day Natalya was turned into a vampire. Natalya's actual relationship to the Mikaelson family and why she carries the Mikaelson name will be revealed in the next chapter. I will clarify that she is not related to them in any way. **

_He started to make his way over to me. I reached over and took a shot of Tequila from the man sitting next to me and downed it. _

"_Hello there. Greg tells me that you resisted coming to meet me. My town, my rules. You don't like it; you can either pay the price or leave." _

_I set the shot glass down on the bar with a loud clank and turned around. "Is that so?" _

_He looked taken back for a moment before recovering. "Natalya Mikaelson. It's been a while." _

"You know her?" Greg asked as he looked between us.

"Of course he does. He wouldn't be the man he is today if not for me. Rather, he wouldn't be the vampire." Marcel and I glared at each other.

"I thought Klaus was your sire?" Greg questioned.

Marcel didn't say a word, just watched me. In my experience it wasn't a good thing when Marcel was quiet. "He is. Marcel would have never met Klaus if not for me. He was nothing more than an orphan living on the streets when he met me. Isn't that right Marcel?"

**New Orleans 1904**

I was walking home from town. I had gone out to the boutiques to find something for Rebekah. It was our anniversary of sorts. It had been three hundred and ninety four years today since Rebekah had turned me into a vampire. It was a bittersweet day. Not only was it the day I became a vampire, but also the day I died giving birth to my last child and abandoned all of my children. I was passing an alley while reminiscing about that night in fifteen ten.

_**England 1510**_

_I was giving birth to my sixth child, Penelope. It was a hard labor, much harder than any of my previous children, even worse than the twins. Rebekah was by my side as she had been for the birth for each of my children. Every time I had a contraction, I would squeeze her hand. _

_Another contraction ended. "I can not do this anymore. Please tell me you can see the baby!" I cried._

"_I'm sorry. Apparently, the little one does not want to make an appearance." The midwife looked worried. I had already been in labor for about twelve hours. None of my other children had taken nearly that long. I had been blessed with mostly easy births. _

_I was now fifteen hours into labor and had lost a lot of blood. "Bekah, I'm not doing too well." I managed to whisper. I wasn't sure how much longer I would be able to hold on. _

_She looked to the midwife. "Is there nothing you can do to move this along?" _

_The midwife nodded her head to the side of the room. Rebekah let go of my hand and followed her over where they had a very hushed conversation. A few moments later, they came back over to my bed. Rebekah looked down at me sadly. _

"_What did she say?" I asked her worriedly._

"_There's a chance that we may lose both of you." Rebekah's eyes saddened. _

"_What?" I stopped to calm myself down. "Rebekah. Save the baby." _

"_How?"_

_I gestured to come closer. I began to whisper. "Compel me to not feel anything. Then cut the baby out of me." _

_She looked back at me horrified. "Natalya! You can not be serious." _

_I nodded my head. "I am. Save the baby. I am more than happy to die for my child." I assured her. _

_She thought for a few moments before agreeing. "On one condition; I'm giving you my blood. I'll turn you."_

"_Do it." _

**New Orleans 1904**

The memories of that night were very emotional for me. I was so engulfed in the memory that I hadn't heard the man approaching me from behind me until his hand was wrapped around my arm.

"Miss Mikaelson. Why don't you look all gussied up and proper?" He teased as he shoved me against the side of a building. .

"I do believe you should let go of me now." I warned him.

"Doesn't look as if your precious bothers are here to protect you today." He looked around to double check his assumption. It was public knowledge that Niklaus, Elijah, Rebekah, Kol, and I were siblings. Very few people knew that I had no actual blood relation to any of them.

There were several people very close so that I was unable to just throw him off of me as I normally would. I was trying to catch his line of sight to compel him when a dark shinned fist collided with my assailants face. His had let go of me and he dropped to the ground.

"Are you okay, Miss?" He asked when the man stood and ran away.

"I am, thank you…." I trailed off.

"Marcel." He smiled charmingly. He was a handsome man in probably his twenties, despite his ratty, torn, dirty clothes.

"Thank you, Marcel. I appreciate your assistance."

"Please allow me to escort you home. I would hate for you to run into another attacker."

I smiled back at him. "Of course."

It was another ten minute walk to the house. "Would you care to come inside for something cold to drink?" I offered as we entered the gates of the estate.

"Sure, thank you." He held the door open for me before following me into the kitchen where several staff members were bustling around.

One of the staff, Grace, stopped what she was doing to check in with me. "Miss Mikaelson, is there something I can do for you and your guest?"

"Yes, we would like some lemonade in the parlor, please, and I would appreciate it if someone could make sure that my purchases could be placed in my room." She nodded and took my purchases from me. I turned and gestured towards the parlor near the entrance of the mansion.

We had been sitting in the parlor for maybe five minutes when Nik and Elijah entered. "Natalya, we heard that you had returned home." I stood to meet Elijah who gave my cheek a peck. He took in Marcel sitting across from me. "Who is your guest?"

"Marcel, these are my brothers, Elijah, and Niklaus." I gestured to each of my 'brothers.' We kept up the ruse that I was another sister, the last thing we wanted was attention stemmed from rumors that I was loose woman living with three men to whom I was not related. "Elijah, Nik, this is Marcel. He saved me from an attacker today I town and wanted to escort me home." I let them know why he was in the house.

Elijah was instantly looking me over. "Are you okay?" He asked playing the role of big brother to perfection.

"Yes. My assailant had no sooner shoved me against a wall when Marcel intervened." I smiled back at Marcel.

Elijah turned around and held his hand out to Marcel. "It seems as if we owe you are gratitude. Thank you very much for seeing to Natalya's safety." Marcel shook Elijah's hand.

"She is home now. Why are you still here?" Nik glared at him.

"It is hot outside. I offered him a cold glass of lemonade." I glanced at him incredulously.

"Niklaus." Elijah admonished him. "That is no way to show gratitude for such a deed." He turned back to Marcel, "Please excuse his behavior." Nik stalked out of the room. "We have dinner at five; would you care to join us?"

"Of course." He took my hand and kissed the back of it. "I'll see you at five."

**Present Day**

"I wasn't aware that you were coming back to the Quarter." Marcel put on his normal smile. "It's been at least twenty years since I've seen you here." He reached out engulfed me in a hug.

"Twenty years since you've seen me. I've popped in several times to check on and update the estate. I'm back for good. I heard Nik and Elijah were coming home and decided to join them." I plastered a fake smile on my face for him.

"I'm glad you're back. Feel free to stay as long as you like." He looked over my shoulder for a moment before looking back to me. "I have some things to take care of. Make yourself at home and if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask." He smiled before taking my hand and kissing the back of it just as he had done that very first day we met.

**Hopefully you enjoy. I'm feeling pretty good about this chapter. It is a little short by my standard but that's only because I need to leave for work in two hours and still need a nap beforehand. Next chapter will be Natalya meeting Hayley and the story of how she came to join the Mikaelson family. The reason for Marcel and Natalya's strained relationship will come out in the next few chapters as well. If you like it, please review. I do obsess over reviews…**


	3. Meeting Hayley

**Hopefully, I still have a couple readers. I had plenty of hits, but no reviews. This chapter is a little short by my standards, but is really just filler to show Natalya and Hayley meeting and give a little backstory as to how Natalya joined the family and the family she left behind. **

**Chapter Three**

I returned to the mansion a couple hours later, after having stopped off for a blonde snack. I had no sooner entered the house when Elijah found me. "Natalya, Hayley arrived a couple hours ago and I am abhorred to find that she has been living out of suitcases. Would you mind seeing if she if she needs anything and make sure she gets what she does need?"

"Of course." I nodded and started to walk away.

Elijah laid his hand on my arm to stop me. "I apologize for earlier. I did not mean to upset you. I know leaving your children was difficult enough for you five hundred years ago. The last thing I wanted was to dredge up those memories."

"It's fine, Elijah. It's part of my past and who I am. I can't just ignore it." I gave him a weak smile and walked away to find Hayley. I found her in the bedroom suite across from my own. The house was magnificent. We had it commissioned in the eighteen ninety's. It was the first house in New Orleans to have indoor plumbing, much less to have a personal bathroom in every bedroom suite, plus guest bathrooms in main parts of the house. e Th

Each of the bedroom suites had a small sitting room, the bedroom, two closets, and a bathroom. There were ten bedrooms spread across the upper floor. Downstairs housed the parlor, the sitting room, the kitchen, the formal dining room, a couple offices and studies, a formal event room, and the servants' quarters. It was a masterpiece at the time it was built and through the years I had kept it updated with the times.

I knocked twice on the open door before stepping inside the suite. I found Hayley laying on the sofa in the sitting area. "Hayley? Hi, I'm Natalya. Elijah asked me to make sure you had everything you might need. Is there anything you need?"

"I'm good." She said slowly as if trying to figure me out. "Are you another one of Klaus' sisters?"

I laughed. "No. For all intents and purposes, we've always let everyone believe that I was; but, in reality, there's no relation."

"Oh, so…." She covered her mouth with her hand before getting up and running towards the bathroom. I chuckled a little before following her into the bathroom. She was hunched over the toilet throwing up. I reached down and pulled her hair out of her face and held it out of the way. It took a few minutes before she stopped and sat back on the floor and flushed the toilet. I grabbed a washcloth out of the linen cupboard and ran it under some warm water and handed it to her.

"Feeling any better?"

"A little. Thanks for the help."

"Don't worry about it. I know how hard morning sickness can be, granted that was five hundred years ago."

"You had children?"

I nodded. "Seven, four daughters and three sons."

"So, you're not as old as the others." She laid the cloth on the tub and stood up.

"No, I'm half their age." I left the bathroom and headed back into the sitting area while Hayley followed me. She pulled a hair tie off of her wrist and pulled her hair up into a ponytail as we both sat on the sofa.

"How did you come to be with them then?"

"Nik and Rebekah came across my parents in Bulgaria in fourteen ninety three. They fed and killed both of my parents. I happened to come out of the house right after. Rebekah had always wanted children and couldn't bear to leave me alone or to kill me; so, she begged Nik to let her raise me as her own. In the beginning it was easy to say that I was one of their daughters. When I got older, they began saying I was their youngest sister. I've been with them ever since. They're my family."

"You never blamed them for killing your parents?"

"No. I could but, they gave me eternal life, eternal love, and an eternal family. Maybe I should blame them, but I never have." I paused. "Well, if you're sure that you don't need anything, I will let you be. I'm sure you could use some rest. Dinner is at six in the dining room." She nodded.

I stood and made my way down the stairs and into the study that I had claimed over a century ago. It held several of my most prized possessions. The most prized of which was a painting that hung above the fireplace on the far wall. It was five hundred years old and was of my husband, Franklin, myself, and our then six children. I was pregnant at the time of the painting. I had another small painting of our seventh child hanging beside it. It was painted four years later. By that time, Franklin had married my former handmaiden and our children's nanny. I wasn't jealous of the union. Our marriage was not one based on love, none of my marriages were. Few were at the time for families of our wealth and caliber. My marriage was arranged by Niklaus. I was married one week after I turned fifteen. It was not uncommon at the time but was unheard of now. After I married Franklin, I had spent the next five years pregnant with very little recovery time between pregnancies before my death.

"Natalya, there you are!" Nik entered my study.

"Here I've been. Did you need something?" I leaned back against the desk and lifted myself into a sitting position on the desk.

"How did your meeting with Marcel go? I trust he was surprised to see you." He looked around at the portraits of my family.

"Fairly well. He was a little short on words. I'm not too sure if he was just shocked or if he was angry to see me."

"He already called me, wanted to know why I didn't tell him that you were coming." He smirked at me.

"What did you tell him?"

"That I was not aware that I needed his permission to bring my family back together in the last place we were truly a family."

"I'm sure he loved that."

"You'll find out tonight. Marcel will be here at six for dinner." Nik walked back out of my study.

**Again, just filler, but please let me know what you think and review. Next chapter will be the dinner party for Klaus, Elijah, Natalya, Hayley, and Marcel. I can't wait to get a little further in. I do have a shocker coming for Natalya later that kind of rocks her world and throws her off. If you pay attention to some of the clues I've been leaving you may figure it out before I get to it….**


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